Tuesday, November 26, 2013

As has become more common than not over the last ten years, the nomination leader for the 29thFilm IndependentSpirit Awards is a film released by a boutique division of a major Hollywood studio: Fox Searchlight's 12 Years a Slave, with seven nominations including Best Feature. What makes this year's case potentially interesting is that the film is, at this admittedly very early stage of awards season, a major contender to factor strongly at the Academy Awards, so the usual "win on Saturday, lose on Sunday" pattern usually followed on awards weekend may be broken for the first time in March 2014. Another studio release, Paramount Vantage's Nebraska, earned the second most nominations with six. But some true indies do factor in this list, including the film which placed third on the nod tally, Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate's All Is Lost, with four.

While this list is expectedly populated with a lot of the more popular and acclaimed independent releases this year, as with every year there are some peculiarities. Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha scored a Best Feature nomination, but none for Baumbach's direction or screenplay, and even more curiously, none for the film's star Greta Gerwig--and the film is more or less carried by her performance. Festival and critical darling Short Term 12 earned three nods, including the highly touted Brie Larson for Best Female Lead, the film didn't get a Best Feature nod, nor was its writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton nominated for anything. While the film's screenplay and Julie Delpy's lead performance were nominated, Before Midnight is notably absent from the Best Feature category. Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station has three nominations, but one of them is not a Best Supporting Female nod for Octavia Spencer, but her co-star Melonie Diaz did make that cut. But most annoying of all is James Franco's instantly quotable, and dare I say instantly iconic, work in Spring Breakers somehow didn't make the Best Supporting Male list. If Franco's fearless, all-in, take-no-prisoners performance isn't the very epitome of "independent spirit," I don't know what is.

The full list of nominees:

BEST FEATURE
(Award given to the Producer, Executive Producers are not awarded)

19th ANNUAL STELLA ARTOIS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
The 19th annual Truer Than Fiction Award, sponsored by Stella Artois, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.

Kalyanee Mam, A River Changes Course

Jason Osder, Let the Fire Burn

Stephanie Spray & Pacho Velez, Manakamana

The 29thFilm IndependentSpirit Awards will be handed out, as is tradition, in a tent on Santa Monica beach the afternoon the day before the Oscars, on Saturday, March 1, 2014.